Denise DeFreitas was protesting Venezuela’s involvement in a border dispute involving her country and used the occasion of the visit of President Maduro to air her grouse.
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In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Guyana’s president David Granger accused his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, of cross-border bullying.
The decree created a theoretical “defense” zone offshore that would, in Venezuela’s eyes, leave Guyana with no direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.
This week, Granger expressed concern about a Venezuelan troop buildup near the border.
He then paid tribute to Colombia and its President, Mr. Juan Santos, who he said had achieved a peace agreement with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the meeting, said the two presidents “expressed willingness to continue to engage in dialogue”, and would receive their respective ambassadors in both capitals “in the nearest future”.
The United Nations estimates almost 20,000 more Colombians left voluntarily.
“The tact of serenity prevailed”, Maduro said during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday.
The purported annexation of the waters off Essequibo now takes in the oil-rich Stabroek Block, where American oil giant Exxon Mobil in May found a “significant” reserve of high quality crude oil.
“That decree constituted a reassertion of its claim to five of Guyana’s ten regions”, he declared, rejecting claims by Venezuela which he said are in defiance of worldwide law. The company has declined to comment on the dispute.
“The whole world – except the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela – accepts our borders”, he declared.
Venezuela has agreed to let more than 1,500 Colombians return as legal residents after they were deported during an August crackdown on the border.
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Maduro said a technical committee would tackle the territorial dispute between the two countries. “Venezuela has threatened and deterred investors and frustrated our economic development”, he said, emphasizing that Guyana’s territorial integrity is being violated by Venezuela, “which has occupied a part of our territory, the most recent incident being on 10 October 2013, when it sent a naval corvette into our maritime zone and expelled a peaceful, petroleum exploration vessel which was conducting seismic surveys”.
